Local authorities across England continue to buy homecare at prices that stop providers from meeting their legal duties as employers and delivering safe, regulated care.
The Homecare Association regularly researches the fee rates that public bodies pay independent providers for homecare. In this report, we analyse 2026-27 fee rate and uplift data that our members supplied, if known, on 176 regular homecare contracts held with 107 distinct English local authorities (70% of the total), together with a short summary of data on extra care and supported living contracts.
This year’s data show, once again, that councils fail to fund homecare at a sustainable level, and that the gap between what they pay and what care costs has grown. We find that:
- The average homecare fee rate for local authorities in England in 2026-27 is £25.37 per hour, far below our Minimum Price of £34.42 per hour.
- The approximate average uplift for homecare from 2025-26 was 3.7%, falling short of the 4.1% increase in the National Living Wage.
- More than three-fifths (61%) of the homecare contracts for which we received details had a fee rate below £26.17 per hour - the amount needed to cover statutory employment costs of care workers at the minimum wage. This leaves less than nothing to cover other operating costs.
- Not a single homecare contract had a fee rate that met the Minimum Price, our benchmark for the legal and operational cost of safe, regulated care.
- We estimate a funding gap of around £2.3 billion in England, across councils and the NHS, for homecare workers to receive the minimum wage and businesses to be financially sustainable.
Please click the link below to read the full report.
Fee Rates for State-Funded Homecare in 2026-27
